Best Movies of 2006
Ranked by our critic's grades, best first.
The PrestigeNolan structures the film as the trick it describes, and the prestige lands every time.Read the review
The DepartedScorsese's nastiest entertainment, a two-mole thriller that keeps tightening until the elevator opens.
Half NelsonAn addiction story that stays small, specific and unresolved, and gets two of the decade's finest performances out of that refusal.
Casino RoyaleThe reboot that stripped Bond back to a blunt instrument, and the only one of the modern run with a real love story in it.
Blood DiamondHard, well acted and honestly angry, then it routes a national catastrophe through one white man's conscience.
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo DriftThe best-looking early entry, wasted on a lead who cannot hold the frame, and the film that saved the series by accident.
Pan's LabyrinthThe fairy tale and the fascism are cut so they rhyme, and both are equally unforgiving.
Rescue DawnHerzog's most obedient film, saved from its flag waving finish by two actors who look genuinely starved.
Little Miss SunshineA yellow bus full of failures, and the quiet scenes in the car are better than anything in the pageant.
The Lives of OthersA surveillance thriller where the whole plot happens on one man's face in an attic.